Vibrant
by xLittle Black Star
Summary: Every color has a meaning, and every color means something a little different to each person. The colors of Annabeth's life. R&R.


**Note:** This has been half finished for months now... :p "Them" is always Percy and Annabeth, and "he" is always Percy. Just in case that wasn't blatantly obvious. Um... so originally it was intended to be solely about their relationship, but it just didn't work out that way. So yes, red is a little different than the rest. DEAL, mmkay? And I'm going _classic _rainbow. Talkin' Roy G. Bv here (can you believe they got rid of indigo?). Except it's really more of Roy G Bp. Whatever.

* * *

**red.**

Annabeth and red have never gotten along very well. After all, red is the color of blood and Dares and angry words. Red is smeared all over her face when the Aphrodite cabin gets to her, red is second place ribbons and late night fights. Red is the ruby earrings she sortakindamaybe stole from her step-mom 'cause she needed money and _gods _it's not like the woman missed them. Cheap romance and roses that will just die in a week anyway. Valentines that she never gets. The color of embarrassment and stained jeans; the color of fury. The color of evil.

Then something changed, and red became passion and love. Red is his favorite Aerosmith t-shirt, and the sweatshirt that smells _justlike _him that she sortakindamaybe snagged from his cabin (but it's not like he misses it anyway). The blush that spreads across his face and sortakindamaybe creeps up into Annabeth's cheeks too when he catches her off guard. The Spider-Man doll that he set up on the edge of her bed. The color of his sneakers that are about to disintegrate but he won't get new ones because he fought a godsdamned _war _in those. Red is the food fights that always seem to happen when the two of them come into contact with any sort of tomato products; the picture frame on her desk back in San Francisco. Red's her favorite bra, because it always ends up on the floor in Cabin Three whenever she wears it, which is apparently "just a coincidence," but Annabeth isn't entirely convinced. Red is love and lust and energy, and if someone asked her, she just might say it's her favorite.

* * *

**orange.**

Original, quirky, and comedic. Sunsets at their very best. Annabeth's favorite soda, the campfire when it is happy. Orange is Cheeto fingers and the color of the Cabin Eleven's faces when Cabin Ten decided to fight back. Orange is the color they met in.

Home. Orange was home.

And then the world turned upside down on her, and suddenly orange is sinister, destroying the world she once dared to call her own. Torn t-shirts on wounded; dying; dead bodies. The color of betrayal from used-to-be-campers; used-to-be-friends. Orange is flames; swallowing too many shrouds. Orange is the lava in Mount St. Helens that caused all those burn scars. It is destruction. And then he disappears wearing orange, and now orange has made things just a little _too _personal for Annabeth's liking.

(But she longs for it anyway, because although orange pains her, it still reminds her of normality, and the boyfriend that was _stolen.)_

* * *

**yellow.**

Annabeth thinks sometimes yellow gets a bad rap.

Sure, it's school buses and September leaves and pencils; yield signs and _slow-down-'cause-red's-coming _lights. But it's also the color of her childhood. The color of smiley faces and sunshine and the only princess who likes to read. Yellow is city lights and a day at the beach. Yellow is the color of her kitchen back in San Francisco. The rubber duck from Bobby and Michael's baths that _really does _stare at her; the fresh lemon tree in the back yard. It's the lemonade that is always waiting for her on the Chases' kitchen counter; the lemonade she always asks for at camp. The color of sweaty training in the pavilion; the color of anger released. Yellow is the color of the taxis that stare up at her when she's on Olympus; the same taxis she hurriedly waves over and demands take her straight to his apartment. It's the flowers he gave her on her birthday just because he knew Annabeth has always felt like sunflowers are watching her with those huge brown eyes, like cyclopses. Yellow is the color of Princess Aurora's curls, which have been teasingly compared to Annabeth's own curls for as long as she remembers. Yellow is the peanut M&M stuffed animal her dad bought her when she was just two for only five dollars, but it's still priceless to Annabeth. It's the pure energy the Lightning Bolt shoots off. Yellow is everything vivacious, vibrant, and spontaneous; everything exciting and wild. It's versatile; coming in so many different shades that all mean different things. It used to scare Annabeth, but maybe everyone needs a bit of impulsiveness in their life.

* * *

**green.**

Most people know green as life. Calming. Cool. Simplicity.

Don't they know that's just one part of it, though? Green comes in so many different shades: chilled mint, foresty, Kelly green, sea green, lime...

Green is diverse. It can be anything it wants to be, as it so often is, and do anything it wants to do, as it so often does. It opens new doors and treads on new turf, conceals and reveals, comes and goes as it pleases. And at the same time, green is the most stable thing in Annabeth's life.

Her first memories are green. Plant green; life green. She remembers running over to the one by the door back in Virginia, running around the house with fistfuls of torn leaves in her chubby toddler hands. Green is the notebook with her earliest architectural scrawls dancing on the pages. And although Athena's daughter and the sea don't exactly mix well, green is the color of trips to the beach, dipping toes in the chilly water. It's the colors of the only remaining Skittles in the bag when Percy gets to it before Annabeth does (but it's okay, 'cause they're her favorite anyway, and frankly, she's lucky he saved her any at all). Green is capture the flag.

And gods, it's that horror stricken night on Half-Blood Hill and the pine tree that haunted her nightmares for years after. It's _Thalia_; the girl who died but was never dead, all for her friends. All for Annabeth.

And above all, it is reckless decisions and wild behavior and complete_ insanity _at moments. The one thing she trusts. The ever-changing but always-constant pattern of her random life, because green is _Percy._

* * *

**blue.**

She's never welcomed it kindly. She grew up with the icy blue of disapproving paternal irises, so maybe blue always hid a certain lurking sense of disappointment and suppressed resentment for Annabeth. Or maybe it just reminded her of shattered blue dishes that are somehow _her _fault even though it was _Bobby_. Whatever the reason, she despised it, until she learned that it might not always be a bad thing. Because not all blue is icy.

There's _electric _blue and that gorgeous mix of _baby _and _blueskyblue _and how could blue really be that bad?

But then blue causes pain and death and backstabbing and she shuts it out.

And then just through making one friend, blue surrounds her all over again, but it's not babyblueskyblue, it's ocean blue. While blue is almost always cool and calm, this shade of blue is salty waves and and sheer _power _that both terrifies her and intrigues her. She likes this new side of blue, and she finally understands why it's his favorite.

* * *

**purple.**

She always liked it because it was one of her mother's sacred colors, and it symbolizes wisdom and royalty and mystery, but now it's terrifying. Petrifying and horrifying and scaryscary_scary, _because it's permanently changing her life _forever. _And she doesn't know what she'll do, because if she sees him wearing purple she might just curl up and _die._

Except he's not, and she knows he'll neverever_ever _actually wear that ancient praetor's robe no matter how against the rules that is, because he's _Percy _and he'll always be stubborn as hell. So it's kind of okay.

She's still really scared and really reluctant to make friends with this new camp, these new people, even though she'd never say it out loud. But then he kisses her and promises it'll all be okay, because they're together now and it _has _to be okay, okay?

And she has to believe him, because if she doesn't she'll blow up.

Purple. It's so vast and perplexing that she doesn't really know what to make of it anymore. It contradicts itself, because it's made of both the hottest and the coolest colors. It's emotional but wise, passionate but reserved, hysterical yet cautious. It knows it's purpose yet it still has trouble finding it, and Annabeth can't _understand _and _grasp _purple.

And then one day while she's staring out at the sea of purple t-shirts, she voices this aloud to him. He laughs and shakes his head, and then he tells her that it sounds exactly like her.

She's shocked and sputtering, and she doesn't know why he would ever compare her to this wild color, but then she stops to think about it, and she finds that he's right. Because _she _contradicts and _she _is vast and perplexing to everyone she meets.

She's the color purple.


End file.
